


Breaking Points

by RhiannonEowyn (RhiannonMcBride)



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Angst, Canon Disabled Character, Charles in a Wheelchair, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Post-Cuba, Pre-Slash, Vietnam War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-07 00:54:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17950490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhiannonMcBride/pseuds/RhiannonEowyn
Summary: After the school closes, Charles is not coping well...





	Breaking Points

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IreneADonovan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IreneADonovan/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [IreneADonovan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IreneADonovan/pseuds/IreneADonovan) in the [xmenrarepairs19](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/xmenrarepairs19) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
>  
> 
> I'd love to see something set post-FC ans pre-DOFP, specifically in the time just after the school closes. Charles is at his breaking point but hasn't broken entirely. Hank might be working on the serum but hasn't perfected it, or more likely he hasn't started working on it yet. Charles is grieving hard everything he's lost, and Hank attempts to comfort him...

They'd failed.

The school was closed. Not that they could have prevented it. Vietnam had doomed their attempt almost from the beginning.

But the school's closing had pushed Charles near to his breaking point. He'd lost too much, much too much, and he'd buried his grief, pouring all his energy into building the school.

And now he was adrift.

He was drinking too much. He rarely got out of bed before noon. He was going through the motions but nothing more.

Hank hated seeing him like this, but he didn't know what to do. He couldn't bring back Raven. Or Erik. Or the school. And he certainly couldn't mend Charles’ spine.

Charles wheeled into the kitchen, blue eyes a little glassy, movements a little stiff. “Good morning, Hank.”

“Is it?” Hank muttered.

Charles looked hurt. “I'd like it to be,” he said with a ghost of his former optimism.

“Sorry.”

“Is something wrong?”

 _Everything._ “I'm just worried.”

“About?”

“You, mostly.”

“I'll be all right, Hank. It's just hard losing the school.” Charles rubbed at his insensate knee, a nervous habit Hank had learned to recognize.

“It's more than just the school. Raven. Erik. Your legs. And nothing will bring any of it back.”

“I still have hope for some of that.”

“I wish I did. I see what this has done to you.”

Charles sighed. “I am not lost yet, my friend, though I will admit it is difficult. Do you know that, when I first wake up, for a moment, just a moment, I still forget?”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I'll go to sit up and be surprised all over again.”

“That must suck.”

“Yeah. Every time I think I've made peace with everything that happened, something catches me off-guard, and I hurt all over again.” Charles closed his eyes. “Waking up. Or thinking of something I simply must tell Raven. Or rolling over and finding the space beside me empty.”

“You really loved him.” Once Hank might have been uncomfortable with the idea of a man loving another man, but no more.

“Yes. In a way, I still do.”

“I wish I could help.”

“Just keep being you, Hank. You're all I've got left.”

“I won't leave you.”

“I know.”

A part of Hank ached to take Charles into his arms, to help him forget. But he couldn't. Not now. Not yet. Maybe not ever.


End file.
